Arsenal have come away with a 3-1 win over Chelsea thanks to a much-improved performance in the London derby.
The Gunners started the match brightly, pressing the Blues back in their own half in the opening exchanges, but the match changed shortly after.
Chelsea began to push on after the opening 15 minutes, but the first real chance came at the other end. Gabi Martinelli broke away inside the box, and teed Emile Smith Rowe up in the box, but the young Englishman failed to connect with the ball.
From this point onwards we looked like we had blown it, and Chelsea were looking destined to run away with the result, but it was our side who broke the deadlock.
Tierney was brought down as he ran through alongside the goal line, and Reece James failed to get his foot through onto the ball, and VAR had no issues with the decision.
Alexandre Lacazette made no mistake in burying it, and we didn’t have to wait long before it was two.
We earned a free-kick right on the edge of the box, and the Blues decided to line up a four-man wall, and they may have to live with that decision. Granit Xhaka placed his effort neatly over the stand-still defence and into the top fight of the goal to secure a comfy lead going into the break.
Chelsea opted to make two changes in hope of turning the result around, bringing in Hudson-Odoi and Jorginho for Werner and Kovacic, and while they continued to dominate possession, they still struggled to get many shots on target.
We made it three 10 minutes into the second-half to when Bukayo Saka looked to cross the ball into the box, and Edouard Mendy had to chance of stopping it.
The Blues did finally get their first attempt on target inside the final 15 minutes, when Tammy Abraham chested the ball into the goal, and while the officials initially flagged for offside, VAR ruled the decision to be wrong.
They tried to inspire themselves to pull off a late fightback but they still didn’t have the composure to pull it off. A penalty went their way, but Jorginho put nothing behind it allowing Leno to pull off a relatively easy save, and at that point you knew the game was done.
Arsenal didn’t just win, but they deserved to take all three points, and while some of you will have laughed when I predicted Arsenal to win against a struggling Chelsea side, the result was the right one.
Have the Gunners turned the corner or was the result down to Chelsea’s struggles?
Patrick